<b>And God said unto Jacob (Gen. 35:1).</b> Scripture states elsewhere in allusion to this verse: <i>Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness; evil shall not sojourn with Thee</i> (Ps. 5:5).
What is meant by <i>evil shall not sojourn with Thee</i>? It means that no impure words ever emanate from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it says: <i>The words of the Lord are pure words</i> (Ps. 12:4). You know this to be so from the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Noah: <i>Of every clean beast … and of the beasts that are not clean</i> (Gen. 7:2). Observe that Scripture does not say “unclean beasts” but rather <i>beasts that are not clean</i>. R. Joshua the son of Levi said: The Holy One, blessed be He, resorts to a circumlocution of two and three words in the Torah rather than utter an impure word.<sup class="footnote-marker">10</sup><i class="footnote">The verse mentions the pure characteristics of the animal even though it may not be eaten. It avoids mentioning the impure aspects of an animal.</i> And so you find that when He introduced the matter of cleft hoofs lacking in impure beasts, he mentioned the signs of their purity first, as is said: <i>The camel, because he cheweth the cud</i>, etc. (Lev. 11:4). This is a sign of purity in an animal. Likewise in the case of the pig, He said: <i>The swine, because he parteth the hoof</i> (ibid., v. 7). This too is a sign of purity. Why did He do this? So that He would not be forced to utter an unclean word. Hence, <i>Evil shall not sojourn with Thee</i>.
Another comment on <i>For Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness</i> (Ps. 5:5). R. Phinehas the priest, the son of Hama, maintained: The Holy One, blessed be He, does not desire to prove His creatures guilty, He would rather that they pray unto Him so that he might accept them. R. Isaac propounded the query: Now that we have no prophet, no priest, no sacrifice, no Temple, no altar, who will atone for us? And He explained: Even though the Temple is no more, prayer remains available to us, as Scripture states: <i>O Lord, hear; O Lord forgive</i> (Dan. 9:19). And did you not say: <i>Mine eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually</i> (I Kings 9:3).
Observe what is written: <i>Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now thou shalt go forth out of the city and shalt dwell in the field</i> (Micah 4:10). The <i>ketiv</i> (traditional spelling) is “I shall dwell” (rather than the Masoretic “thou shalt dwell” as in the preceding quotation) to indicate that though I shall exile you from its midst, my Shekhinah will not depart from the city. The <i>field</i> mentioned here alludes only to Zion, as it is said: <i>Zion unto a field will be plowed</i> (ibid. 3:12). The Holy One, blessed be He, declared: You shall pray unto me in the direction of the Holy City, and I will hearken from heaven and heal your land. Therefore Jacob said to his sons: <i>Let us arise, and go up to Beth-El</i>. What shall we do there? they asked. And he answered: The Holy One, blessed be He, has commanded me to arise, go up to Beth-El and dwell there.